Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is slowly but surely establishing itself in the woodland garden. Three little plants two years ago have become a smallish colony of 7 or 8. The flowers are still shortlived as they are easily destroyed by rain and wind, but whatever time they had to attract insects must have been enough. I am happy to see several seed pods for the first time. I hope this means a more rapid expansion throughout the woodland corridor alongside my house. The softly jagged kidney shaped leaves remain visible all summer and fall, and provide a nice groundcover.
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Trillium luteum is a native neighbor, as it naturally occurs in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky. They are also found in the north (Michigan and Ontario), although they are regarded there as having been introduced. However, that northern location provided proof that they could withstand a harsh New England winter. Like other Trillium species, this plant prefers shaded woodlands and scrub. I only have a few plants now, but they seem to like their environment and have grown taller and have shown more vigor since I planted them 2 years ago. They will go dormant in a few weeks, and you would never know they were there because ferns and asters will fill in. Opportunism is a way of life in the woodland garden, as plants vie for the little sunlight that reaches the ground.
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I was quite surprised to see two of these plants in a narrow strip of woodland right near my house. I am not sure how rare these are on Cape Cod, or anywhere else for that matter, but there were only these two plants and I searched far and wide for signs of other moccasin flowers, as they are sometimes called. This orchid has two fuzzy lightgreen petals with a single stem and flower. The pinkish flower has purple veins across it and some parts that vaguely resemble shoe laces. It’s hard to comprehend that the stem can support such a big bulbous flower, but it must be lighter than it looks.
These orchids are quite interesting plants. Cypripedium acaule has a symbiotic relationship with a soil fungus. The seeds do not have food supplies inside them like most other kinds of seeds, and the fungus breaks open the seeds and passes on nutrients. When the plants grow older and become self sustaining, the relationship is reversed and now the fungus will extract nutrients from the roots of the plant.
Another relationship is just as important: Pink lady’s slippers need bees, and the flower’s color and smell lures the insects deep into the pouch. There is only one way out of the flower, and the bees are guided by hairy obstacles to the exit, but not without passing pollen and the stigma. Pollen from another lady’s slipper is deposited and fresh pollen is adhered to the bee on the way out.
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At this time the plants are still young and they have not gotten to the point of producing flowers and the signature blue berries. The two blue cohosh plants in the garden are hidden somewhat out of sight behind the stalks of asters and they are about a foot high. Eventually, in another year or two they will be twice that tall and will be producing fruit. In the meantime, the distinctive leaves contribute a greyish-blue hue to the surrounding groundcover.
The rootstock of this plant, native to eastern North America, is well known in the medical community and by herbal aficionados for its medicinal properties. In particular, blue cohosh root powder is used for stimulating the uterus and starting labor; starting menstruation; stopping muscle spasms; as a laxative; and for treating colic, sore throat, cramps, hiccups, epilepsy, hysterics, inflammation of the uterus, and joint conditions. As an analgesic it is more effective than aspirin. You want to be careful about administering blue cohosh root powder without having adequate medical supervision. The effects are similar to what estrogen (a hormone) does to a human body. Additionally, extracts from the plant narrow the heart blood vessels and can decrease oxygen supply to the heart. Caulophyllum thalictroides root extracts are something you want to stay away from if you suffer from heart disease or high blood pressure. On the other hand, there is apparently some food value in the seeds – you can roast them and use them as a coffee substitute.
Blue cohosh grows 1 to 3 feet high. When it first emerges from the soil in the spring the plant is covered with a bluish-green bloom which gradually disappears. In the next few years I hope to see the small greenish-yellow flowers appear during May and June. In the fall seeds, resembling blue berries, will appear on stalks. Over time the plant produces a thick mass of roots.
I am not quite sure how it ended up in the woodland garden, but it enjoys a moist woodland environment. The conditions are certainly ideal. Most likely it arrived as a seedling or seed stowaway among other plants I purchased. I have not observed blue cohosh anywhere in the woods around my house.
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Looking back at posts from the past few years that were written around this time, I am seeing some slight differences in the patterns of the critters that live around our Cape Cod home. I usually get large black ants running around my kitchen for several days in late April. Then these ants suddenly disappear. For some reason, I didn’t get that influx this year.
The groundhog that ate most of our plants last year seems to have moved elsewhere, but apparently there is a bunny in his place. I never see the rabbit, but G has caught him several times either about to snack or just finishing up.
As for birds, the catbirds and the hummingbirds have returned. A previous blog mentioned the American Woodcock we spotted with her babies last week, that was a rare sight! The only other thing that comes to mind is that I have seen more goldfinches than ever before. Our native plantings have matured since we started a few years ago, it’s gotten lush, and our yard is a great place for birds to hang out, hide from predators and have babies. Great example – we were about to get rid of an old grill and noticed bird activity around it, some carolina wrens had created a nest inside so we won’t be throwing it out anytime soon. Those guys are crafty!
Carolina wrens build an immense nest. They are quite industrious little birds.
The wasps who always return to our kitchen window are back – but it is a good week later or more. An acquaintance told me last week that I will be wasp fan until they sting me, but I must say the only word I can use to describe the tiny beginnings of their little paper nest is cute. We have a birds’ eye view, their wasp nest literally against the glass of our kitchen window and it’s not unlike the honey bee exhibit at the Cape Cod Natural History Museum in Brewster.
Speaking of the museum, we are very honored that the folks at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History have asked Cape Cod Woodland Garden bloggers to give a presentation on Saturday June 7 during a day at the museum devoted to plants! G will be creating a slide show of – I believe – stories about his native plant experiences on Cape Cod. He will also be available to answer questions about the topic of native plants on Cape Cod.
It’s nice to say final good-byes to the cold snowy winter on Cape Cod, which was much colder and snowier than I have experienced in the past few years. Winter really put a damper on my outdoor walks this past year. The spring wasn’t much better temperature wise, and now it has actually become hot. But I have to say as much as New England weather can be crappy, walking around last week on 6A, I felt the cool breeze and thought to myself – people who live in climates that are warm all year are really missing out. There is nothing like the first few days of springtime where the trees are that glorious yellow green color which quickly turns to leaf green, and you can feel the cool air touching your newly-liberated-from-winter-clothing-skin.
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Do you ever kick yourself, after the fact, when you have an encounter with an unfamiliar animal or plant, because you are so engrossed in the experience that you neglect to document it on camera? This is the second time now, and both occurences involve birds. I did not bring out the camera when a screech owl fell into our chimney two winters ago, and I made the same mistake last week when an American woodcock with two chicks in tow walked out of the woods into our yard. Although not an uncommon bird, they are rarely observed as they like to keep hidden away in the underbrush. I am not sure what caused this mother of two to go on a walkabout, but there they were trotting along ungainly through the leaf litter and stopping once in a while to peck with their long beaks at the ground, I presume for insects or worms. Was this a teaching expedition or were they disturbed by human activities, I will never know. But the bird and her chicks were not in a hurry, although that could easily be attributed to a body type that seems totally unsuited for the woodland environment. They almost looked uncomfortable and out of place, with their shorebird frame. I was lucky to even spot them, as they are perfectly camouflaged. Up close the adult displays an orange to light brown underbelly and the beak and big black eyes can’t be missed. The young chicks had the same distinctive beak and eyes although their furry plumage was speckled with black and white tones. They did not venture far from mom and followed her into the thickets of branches and leaves of a large rhododendron in my yard.
Picture by Laura Meyers, as displayed on Cornell Lab of Ornithology site. © Laura Meyers, NY, Jamaica Bay NWR, June 2011, http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurameyers/5855991189
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Every now and again, animals and plants wash up on the beaches in great quantities. Aside from the seasonal cycles which land huge quantities of seaweed on the shores, and cyclical die-offs (e.g. mole crabs), there are the storms that dislodge anything from scallops to surf clams and cockles. I guess this weekend it was the sea cucumber’s turn on the south facing beaches. There were literally hundreds of them along the mile of beach that I walked, and the majority of them were alive – they contracted when touched. Mind you, touching these sea cucumbers took a leap of faith on my part. After all, dogs are still being walked on our beaches, and I was not quite sure what I was dealing with at first.
A fact sheet on the NOAA site mentions that these are a group of animals that are scavengers. Some cling to hard surfaces, and others move along the seafloor to feed on algae and microscopic sea life. I had never thought of some sea cucumbers as being “activeâ€, I always assumed they were just attached to a rock and lived their lives in one place. Not so, apparently. After picking up a good amount of them and throwing them back in the surf, I was somewhat horrified to read that they can “shoot sticky threads at their enemiesâ€, or “violently contract their muscles and shoot some of their internal organs out of their rear endsâ€. I can assure you that would have startled me, to say the least.
Sea cucumbers are regularly eaten by fish, crabs, and by us humans as well. While this is more customary in Asia, there are the beginnings of a commercial industry in the northeast as well. After the decline of cod and now lobster, will this be the next target species?
The species that I found in great numbers was Cucumaria frondosa. It is apparently common in up to 100 feet of water and it prefers to cling to hard surfaces, ranging from rocks to shell debris. Sea cucumbers belong to the same group of animals that includes starfish, sand dollars and sea urchins. However, instead of spikes the longish cylindrical animal has a brown leathery skin. There are two openings on either end: One surrounded with tentacles, for feeding, and the other end should be self-explanatory.
I took some pictures with a year 2000 model flip phone, so they won’t be the best quality, but I will post them as soon as I find a cable that can connect to this ancient phone. I wonder if anyone has any recipes for fresh sea cucumber. I read that most of the sea cucumber available in retail is either frozen or dried. Not that I would try it anytime soon, but there has to be a daredevil out there somewhere…
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It’s been a long time since I posted, even though there have been several encounters in our Cape Cod plant and animal world. We took a short break from the lingering winter, thinking that we’d have plenty of time to catch the first leaves. A good plan, but we did not plan on the fact the work would catch up to us once we arrived back home. Needless to say, I did not pay much attention to what native plant bloomed first this year, or when the peepers first sang, or when the ospreys came back to their platforms. I am guessing “somewhere around April 20â€. This would make the peepers extremely late, as they were in full orchestra mode in late March in 2013. The Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) was at least 10 days late, so much so that the white trout lily (Erythronium albidum) almost beat it this time around. But as I mentioned, between traveling and catching up with work, some things may have been missed.
Now it is a few weeks later and both eastern and white trout lily have stopped blooming – we’ll enjoy their speckled leaves for a few more months before they go dormant into another 8 month long slumber; twinleaf looked spectacular, but only for about two days. A windy and rainy day was all it took to remove the flower petals. Luckily the leaves are a much more enduring reward. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria Canadensis) is much more plentiful than the year before, but they also have stopped blooming: Their signature leaf will be a constant reminder to “not wait until tomorrowâ€. The wood poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) and the Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are in full glory, and every other plant seems to have emerged from the warming soil. Common blue wood aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) seedlings are starting to emerge everywhere in the garden, and I am already planning to give many away this year. The scourge that was the wood chuck late last year re-emerged once, but seems to have moved on, probably in search of love and a new family. The focus of my humane trapping cage is now centered on some less voracious rabbits.
Best of all, I am finally finding some more time to write about the woodland garden and the special place that is Cape Cod. It is good to be home!
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Nature often shows her seemingly cruel side, and the backyard is not immune from those demonstrations. A sharp shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) surprised a starling (Sturnus vulgaris) near the bird feeder today, while it was feasting on the bird seed we leave out. Sharp shinned hawks are not all that uncommon around here but they tend to hang out in the woods. The bird feeder provides some incentive to come out of the trees. It is probably not the first time either as I have found feathers on a few occasions over the last couple of months. I am not sure whether the bird in the picture is a female or a male, but females tend to be much bigger than the males. It is common for males to remove the head before delivering prey to their young, but it is winter, even though the head was removed from the starling’s torso in this instance. The hawk was pretty particular about not ingesting feathers and spent additional time plucking the bird. It was eating for a good half hour before crows landed nearby. The hawk was well aware of their presence and took off with speed and agility I have not seen in many other birds. It took the torso and left the head behind, maybe as an offering to the crows…
The head of the starling was quickly removed (presumably after eating the good bits)
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This fall season has been excellent for clamming and oystering on Cape Cod. However, the usual Linguini with Clams and Clam Chowder had been served in our kitchen quite enough and needed some spicing up. Luckily for us, a restaurant we frequent serves something like this excellent dish that follows. Although I had an inkling of the ingredients, I had no luck finding the recipe online. We were lucky to one day get their chef’s secret recipe. It is called simply: Spicy Clams or Spicy Littlenecks. There is nothing like it, and the ingredients can all be found cheaply and easily. The dish takes all of 20 minutes to cook. This recipe is for 2, so add or subtract accordingly:
You’ll need:
- 24 littlenecks, (10-12 each depending on the size, of the person or clams)
- half fistful of pasta or whatever you usually eat
- 1.5 oz of Feta cheese (about 1/4 of those squares sold in shops)
- 1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes, each cut in half
- 1/4 of a 1 pound bag of spinach (more or less can’t hurt). just take off bigger stems.
- White wine – really anything will do
- olive oil
- 1/3 med red onion finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove chopped
- red pepper flakes, 1-2 tablespoons
In a sauté pan (I use a wok) sauté red pepper flakes, red onion, garlic, tomatoes, spinach in olive oil until onions start to look clear. 5 minutes or so. Add 2 cups (really can be more) white wine until it bubbles, add clams, cover. Boil your pasta for 9 minutes, around the same time. Cook clams in the wine mixture until they open – about 10 mins – however do not leave opened ones in the pot. In final minute throw in chopped feta cheese. Put your pasta on plates and start to serve as they open so they won’t get tough. Spoon clams over pasta, add bits from the sauce.
A note about wine: I learned to cook with red wine from a friend who cooked pretty much every dish with red wine and garlic. I find these wines interchangeable for cooking, I usually use whatever’s left around, or buy a less expensive bottle just for cooking. In the case of clams, I strongly advise white wine however. I usually use Sauvignon Blanc because it’s what I like to drink, but anything can work unless it is a desert type wine.
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